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Monday, October 3, 2011

In the News-Brenda Starr, Reporter

Brenda Starr Reprints from Hermes Press

Hermes Press has published the first volume of its reprint series, Brenda Starr, Reporter, beginning with the strip's first episode, dated June 30, 1940. The book is called Brenda Starr, Reporter by Dale Messick: The Collected Daily and Sunday Newspaper Strips, and it features 288 pages of color and black-and-white art. You can read more about it on Hermes' Facebook page, here.

Brenda Starr was created by Dale Messick, a Hoosier by birth and a resident of northern Indiana's Lake Region for much of her life. Following Dale's retirement in 1980, Brenda Starr was taken over by artist Ramona Fradon and writer Linda Sutter. June Brigman (artist) and Mary Schmich (writer) carried on from 1995 until the strip was cancelled earlier this year. And there's a bit of news that slipped by me.

As 2010 was nearing its end, the Chicago Tribune announced that Brenda Starr, Reporter, one of the syndicate's longest-running strips, would come to an end on the first Sunday of the new year. The last installment came on January 2, 2011, giving Brenda Starr over fifty years on the comics page. Brenda's fans had to endure only a few months without her, as the Hermes Press collection was published in June 2011, the fifty-first anniversary of the first appearance of Brenda Starr, Reporter.

You can read more about the cancellation of Brenda Starr at the Chicago Tribune's website in an article called "Brenda Starr Becomes Collectors’ Item Sunday" by Geoff Brown, dated December 29, 2010, here.

It's not that I think the book was published by Hermes. I'm simply reporting the facts as I have read them. My information comes from a press release and is confirmed by the item description in a catalog of books and calendars for retail sale. If you can't find the book at Amazon, you might try Bud Plant's catalog or website, Bud's Art Books at BudsArtBooks.com. Brenda Starr, Reporter: The Collected Daily and Sunday Strips, Vol. 1 (Hermes, 2011) is available in hardback for $60.00.

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